Take Advantage of These Free Business Services During the Holidays

It’s easy to spend more throughout the holiday season—from giving out holiday bonuses to hosting special seasonal get-togethers. If you’re not careful, you can quickly overspend. But tightening your belt does not mean you have to be a total Scrooge. During this time of year in particular, make sure you take advantage of all the free business services available to you. Here are some tips on how to save your company money during the holidays.

Email marketing for holiday deals

Email marketing services are a tried-and-true way to stay in touch with your target audience. Many popular platforms, such as Constant Contact, offer free versions or trials. The holiday season is the perfect time to test out different services to see which one works best for you and your business.

Take advantage of email marketing tools where you can create and segment customer lists, personalize your messages, and gain data-driven insights into your open rate, clicks, and demographics. You could use email to announce exclusive deals that are only available during the holidays. You may want to leverage free email marketing tools to promote special Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

If you’re selling your products and services through your website or another online marketplace, you can link directly to them in your email newsletter, making it easier than ever for customers to make a purchase.

Scheduling tools for eventful months

During this time of year, your calendar tends to fill up with long hours, special events and holiday parties. Coordinating schedules becomes increasingly complicated—especially if team members also need to take time off. You can leverage free scheduling tools to organize events and employee calendars to help keep everyone on the same page.

Doodle is one free service that allows you to poll invitees on their scheduling preferences for a particular event or meeting. Once you have the feedback, you can choose the date and time that works best for the majority of the invitees. This type of free scheduling service can help you minimize conflicts and miscommunications about RSVPs. The service also syncs directly with popular email systems like Gmail and Outlook, which allows you to see updated schedules all in one place.

Crowdfunding for product launches and charities

Online crowdfunding services are not just for start-ups and entrepreneurs looking to launch a new product. During this holiday season, consider using crowdfunding as a modern way to raise money for the charity of your choice. When your organization aligns with a charitable organization, you can help increase the positive sentiment around your brand, company and team members. Charitable giving shows customers that your small business cares about giving back to the community.

One idea would be to tie a new product launch with a charitable organization so that a portion of the sales support a good cause. This is popular with organizations such as the Red Cross, Feeding America, and United Way. Some free crowdfunding platforms through which you can set up charitable donation campaigns include Generosity by Indiegogo, Razoo, and Crowdrise.

There are many opportunities to take advantage of complimentary business services during the winter holidays. In using the tools mentioned above, you can get the word out about your latest offerings, schedule timely events, and give back to your community—all free of cost. Instead of letting worries about funding get the better of you this holiday season, enjoy this time of year and invest the money you save back into your company.

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